About 70% of S&P 500 companies have managed to beat analysts’ earnings estimates in the past quarter, says Eric Slover, U.S. equity strategist at Barclays.

That is the same rate as prior quarters even as the economy has struggled, but there is one important difference: In the past, analysts’ forecasts have trended downward ahead of earnings announcements, likely thanks to feedback from the companies. As a result, companies beat expectations even when results were so-so in absolute terms. More on this after the jump… Read More »

There are plenty of moments to celebrate at a growing internet company these days, from round after round of venture capital investment to a nice big pop on IPO day and maybe even your billionth user.

But a more practical one came for online review service Yelp today: its first profitable quarter. It might only be profit in the low single-digit millions–this isn’t Mark Zuckerberg money we’re talking about here–but it still came as a welcome surprise to Wall Street analysts, who were expecting another loss.

Starting Friday, P&G’s quarterly calls instead will be led by Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller and John Chevalier, P&G’s director of investor relations. Mr. Lafley, instead, will appear on the annual wrap up call in early August, while continuing to participate in conferences, and meeting with investors, both on-site and at their offices.

“We’re making this change to put even greater emphasis on annual results and trends versus quarterly results, consistent with our recent change in guidance approach, and to increase productivity,” Mr. Chevalier said in a memo sent to sell-side analysts last Friday. P&G this fiscal year stopped issuing detailed quarterly earnings guidance to avoid some of the big swings in the blue chip’s stock price when results didn’t hit expectations.

Netflix added two million new U.S. subscribers in the last quarter of 2012, a very healthy number compared to the 1.2 million added in the previous quarter, and the less than 250,000 added in the final quarter of 2011. For all of 2012, the company added 10 million new members around the world.

It feels positive about 2013, thanks in part to the February 1 launch of House of Cards, a political drama series premiering on its own online streaming service. And instead of releasing the series episode-by-episode, it will drop it all at once and let viewers decide how they want to watch it. Here’s how the company described the plan in today’s announcement:

Imagine if books were always released one chapter per week, and were only briefly available to read at 8pm on Thursday. And then someone flipped a switch, suddenly allowing people to enjoy an entire book, all at their own pace. That is the change we are bringing about. That is the future of television. That is Internet TV.

Later in the year it will exclusively release new episode of the cult hit Arrested Development, and it thinks the market will keep getting tougher as traditional TV companies realize their customers want everything online. “Competition for viewing time will increase over the next several years, as we have long predicted,” the company said, “as consumers come to expect Internet TV on demand viewing for all their video entertainment.” Read More »

McDonald’s managed the financial crisis better than many of its competitors, pushing prices down and appealing to cost-sensitive consumers downgrading from more expensive fast food options. That positive run came to an end last October, when the company reported its first same-store sales drop in nine years.

Today, reporting fourth-quarter results, the company said growing sales in the U.S. just managed to make up for decline abroad: global same-store sales rose by just 0.1%, with a 0.3% rise in the U.S. offsetting sales falls in the rest of the world.

What got McDonald’s back on track in the U.S., and what is is looking out for in the coming year? A few points, via the WSJ’s Julie Jargon:

- The Dollar Menu is the big deal here: in 2012, the company made a mistake by focusing on a more expensive “Extra Value” menu that featured items costing more than a dollar. With competitors like Burger King and Wendy’s both making aggressive pricing moves and customers feeling particularly cautious, that strategy didn’t work out, and when sales declined in October, the company said it would refocus its efforts and its promotions on its dollar menu, a decision which the company today said has paid dividends.

- McRib’s return has an impact in America: the cult sandwich began appearing in late 2012 and typically provides a short-term sales spike during its fleeting time on the market.

- Chinese chicken issues are having an impact: a Chinese government investigation into tainted chicken supplies has hit KFC particularly hard, but McDonalds today said it was also feeling the pain of a “broad-based countrywide chicken industry issue that we’re experiencing in China right now.”

- Fish McBites are the future, or something like that: Finding a sweet spot in the Venn diagram of affordability and novelty, the company will introduce a kind of fishy version of the chicken nugget this year, made from the same stuff its fish filet burgers are made of.

And to finish things off, the Facebook CEO just said on an earnings call that the payments Facebook received from Zynga — a commission on the revenues Zynga pulls in from gamers on Facebook — have fallen significantly in the last quarter, even as overall revenues from other companies using the Facebook platform have grown vigorously.

“Gaming on Facebook isn't doing as well as I'd like,” Zuckerberg said. Payments revenue from Zynga decreased 20%, but the rest of the ecosystem has been growing. Monthly payments from ecosystem increased 40% over the last year.

As the WSJ reported last week, Zynga has struggled to recapture the buzz that once surrounded its hit games. Its big new launch, Farmville 2, was released earlier this month, although its impact would not have been felt in the July-September period being discussed by Zuckerberg in the conference call.

We are sunsetting 13 older games and we’re also significantly reducing our investment in The Ville.

We are closing the Zynga Boston studio and proposing closures of the Zynga Japan and UK studios. Additionally, we are reducing staffing levels in our Austin studio. All of these represent terrific entrepreneurial teams, which make this decision so difficult. In addition to these studios, we are also making a small number of partner team reductions.

In all, we will unfortunately be parting ways with approximately 5% of our full time workforce. We don’t take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them. Read More »

This morning has been a bad one for U.S. corporate earnings, with a succession of companies releasing numbers that show a weak global economy and demand either softening or shrinking. Most also cut their full year estimates, suggesting they don’t see improvement in the near-term.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4% within the first hour of opening, and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 fell by similar amounts. Has anything positive emerged on a gloomy morning? Restructuring costs dinged results at some companies, but promised longer-term savings that could show up in better future numbers. Maybe.

And fashion house Coach Inc. posted a 3% growth in profits, helped along by 40% sales growth in China, where consumers can’t get enough of the company’s designer handbags and shoes. Its stock is up about 4% so far today, making it one of the market’s best performers.

Not a lot of quarterly earnings results begin with a quote like this — particularly not ones from one of the biggest companies in America, especially not ones showing a 20% drop in quarterly income from said company, and certainly not ones released — by accident, we presume — hours before the close of market, rather than post-close as intended.